If for whatever reason you feel you must run your workstation using administrator credentials as opposed to the safer ordinary user credentials (see my article Running Windows Under Non-Admin Accounts on WindowsNetworking.com) there’s still a way you can surf the web safely. Just do the following (you must have Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later):
- Right-click on the icon for Internet Explorer and select Run As.
- In the dialog that appears, leave Current User selected.
- Make sure that the “Protect my computer and data from unauthorized program activity” checkbox is selcted and click OK.
This will run IE using the new Restricted Tokens feature of Windows XP Service Pack 2, and the effect is essentially to run IE as an ordinary user not an admin.
